The present invention generally relates to computer system design, and more specifically, to a managing a shared high-level cache for dual clusters of fully connected integrated circuit multiprocessors.
Symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) systems utilize a multiprocessor hardware and software architecture. Two or more processors are connected to a single, shared main memory. For example, an SMP system can have a centralized shared memory that operates using a single operating system with two or more processors. Each processor can utilize its own cache memory (or simply “cache”) to speed up data access to the shared memory and to reduce the system bus traffic. Some SMP systems can utilize multiple cache memories and/or multiple levels of cache memory that may be shared between and among various processors.